"Autobiography" topped the British best-seller lists when it was published last year. It appeared under the Penguin Classics imprint, a rare designation for a living writer.

In his review, Gill said that publishing the book as a classic "doesn't diminish Aristotle or Homer or Tolstoy; it just roundly mocks Morrissey."

The Hatchet Job award was established in 2011 by literary website The Omnivore to honor "the angriest, funniest, most trenchant" review published in a newspaper or magazine. It has been criticized for rewarding mean-spiritedness, but organizers say the tongue-in-cheek contest has a serious purpose: to encourage reviewers to be fearless.

Gill receives a golden hatchet and a year's supply of potted shrimp from the award's sponsor, a fishmonger.